By
EARL THEISEN
Honorary Curator
Motion Pictures
Los Angeles Museum
The International Photographer April 1934 p.10
THE most important of the dramatic devices of the motion picture is light. Light and shade are the most vital of the cinematic tools.
Emotions are literally painted with light. George Raft, for example, is depicted in love by a special soft lighting in one scene and in the next, through the use of a harsh light, he is a menace. Pastoral and spring-like effects are the result of soft, shimmery “catch light” and after changing the lights on the same set, it becomes a suitable setting for any villainy.
The flashing and uncertain lighting of the mystery picture gives rise to fear. Menace is portrayed by “hard” lighting” the features. Any desired reaction can be gained by the light artist.
At first the motion picture depended on sunlight for illumination. All the pictures were taken out of doors. Edison constructed a studio in 1893 on rollers that would pivot to follow the sun’s course and three years later Biograph in what was equivalent to their first studio built a revolving device on a steel structure that kept their setting
always facing the sun.
The use of sunlight did not permit much artistry. The picture makers then were concerned with the difficulty of getting enough light to record their photographic image and not with a beautiful or dramatized photography.
The first successful use of lights in the motion picture was the Jim Jeffries-Tom Sharkey prize fight, November 3, 1899. William A. Brady, who promoted the bout, approached the Biograph Company with the proposal that pictures be taken. Hitherto experiments to use light had been unsuccessful. Biograph, ever ready to improve their pictures, decided to try.
They tried. Billy Bitzer, the cameraman, along with assistants hung about 400 modified street arcs over the arena. Under this blinding light and heat, the fight went its way for 25 rounds. While the fighters broiled, the Biograph “got” the pictures.
Back among the fight fans, unknown to Biograph officials, Albert E. Smith, too, was getting pictures with his Vitagraph camera. He figured it a good business stroke to avail himself of the elaborate Biograph preparations. He was right, though Biograph did not think so when they found out. After running up and down some alleys Smith finally got his pictures to his laboratory.
He finished them and hung them up to dry and it is said that another aspiring movie magnate in turn stole them from Smith.
The Vitagraph was finally given a print from which they made money. The Biograph’s did not, since the Vitagraph had beaten them to the screen. That is part of the motion picture story.
Albert E. Smith with twinkling eyes remembers these dark intrigues which were the movie industy then and which weren’t really sins.
The difficulties and heat in the use of artificial light in picture making seemed unnecessary. People were primarily concerned with photographs in motion and any refinements, particularly expensive ones, were not to be considered. Soon the genus movie fan tired of this stuff and demanded a narrative content. The films had to say something.
To achieve the story film, there were two independent forces at work: Science and Art. While Art was using sun and makeshifts at hand in order to keep pictures in demand, the scientists were improving.
In many of these improvements Biograph led. Lighting was one of the cinematic devices in which they pioneered. In the Scientific American of July 1, 1905, is an account of a film made in the New York Subway in which Cooper Hewitt lights were used. The lighting equipment comprising a generator and 72 Cooper Hewitt tubes, were set on a flat car and ori another car was the Biograph equipment. According to the Scientific American, the 54,000 candle power lighting unit being pulled through the station and subway presented a magnificent spectacle. According to George E. Van Guvsling, then the manager of Biograph, the glaring light flashing by presented an unholy spectacle and the persons seeing it acted accordingly.
F. A. Dobson was the cameraman. He had a special high speed camera which photographed at the rate of 900 pictures a minute. It was mounted on an iron framework.
Very little was done in the way of artificial lighting for the nickolodeon picture. In these theaters the audience paid as a rule only five cents to see several pictures. They were victimized. The lighting of the picture at times was so poor the audience could not tell what it was supposed to represent.
It was necessary to have “spielers”, or in other words, “explainers” who stood by the side of the screen and made apropos explanatory comments. We hear so much about the lurid themes today; perhaps they were as bad then, but the public couldn’t be sure.
Again Biograph came to the fore ! They were the first studio to install lighting equipment. When they moved from their first studio on the roof of the Roosevelt Building, at 13th and Broadway, to the famous “Brownstone” at 11 East 14th Street early in 1902, they equipped it with 36 Bogue arcs. These arcs ran on direct current and were originally designed for stereopticon projection. About six months later the arc lights were replaced with two banks—eight tubes to the bank—of Cooper Hewitt lights. Within two years this number of banks was increased to eleven. F. A. Dobson, seen about Hollywood today, was a cameraman for the Biograph on this set.
In 1908, according to Percy Higginson, a engineer for the Biograph, and with the Consolidated Laboratories now; “42 tubes were used to light a set, 10 on each side n the floor and 12 were hung overhead.” Arc lights were used for highlighting.
“The New York Hat,” directed by D. W. Griffith, starring Mary Pickford and Lionel Barrymore, was made during this time as was “The Leatherstocking Series,” which starred James Kirkwood, Arthur Johnson and Florence Lawrence.
When they moved into their new studio in 1914, they had well over 1200 Cooper Hewitt lights. These were distributed over four sets; the sets being housed in one large glass enclosed stage.
The vogue of using lights for the motion picture dates from about 1910. The demand for a large number of pictures became so great that the picture makers found it unprofitable to depend on sunlight around New York where most of the pictures were being made. For reasons of sufficient light and not quality, they started to migrate to Florida and the West looking for a perpetual sun. Eventually they heard about the one in California.
During the period of 1910-15, there was a generaladoption of the artificial light, it being used only when sunlight was uncertain. Besides the Cooper Hewitts which were used only in the larger studios because they were fragile and could not be readily moved, the Aristo and Kleigl arcs were the earliest motion picture lights to be used, though there were many other lights that had some use.
Most of them were of the 90-volt, 25 ampere capacity and were either of the closed or open variety. They hung over the sets and resembled streets lights.
The most prominent of the lights was the “Kleiglight.” They had first been made as a stage light in 1896 by Anton T. Kleigl and A. H. Guendel, who on February 1, formed the Universal Stage Lighting Company. A year later this partnership broke up and Anton Kleigl joined his brother, John H. Kleigl in a partnership which endured until the decease of Anton Kleigl in May, 1927.
Before the Kleiglight was made, practically all stage lighting equipment was made in Europe. Very shortly the theatrical world recognized the Kleigls as leaders in the art of theatrical and spectacular lighting.
In 1903 they rewired and electrically equipped the Metropolitan Opera House. One innovation installed here was a “dimmer.” Previous to this it had been the custom to pull the main switch and plunge the auditorium in darkness at the beginning of the performance ; now the center chandelier gradually dimmed.
Their first lights, made for the motion picture in 1908, were 25 ampere arcs. With the passing years, they perfected an entire line of electrical equipment for the industry and in 1915 they introduced single and double arc floor units which could be rolled about. For the first time it was possible to take pictures with a portable arc light. The picture makers, whether large company or small, were no longer dependent upon sunlight. It was now possible to take pictures by artificial light outside the studio.
By 1915 they had arcs up to 200 amperes. The first spotlights, small arcs for special purposes such as local lighting to create the burglar’s flashlight effect, floor or table lights, etc., were introduced by them. A list of the studios which they served in 1915 would be like a “Who’s Who” of the motion picture.
The word “Kleiglight” was first used the latter part of 1902 as a telegraphic code word.
The Selig Polyscope Company came to California in 1908 and a year later built the first California studio at Edendale. Even though his stage was glass enclosed to take advantage of the sunlight, he used the Macbeth Arclight for many of his pictures. The Macbeth Company had been making street arclights and mantles for the gas street lights.
The lights were anchored to large steel frames on a track and were moved and lowered by cables.
One of the more noted Selig pictures of this time was the “Cowboy Millionaire,” starring Tom Mix.
Eddie Kull, Selig’s chief cameraman, first used the Kleigl twin side arcs in 1913. Too, at this time many of the Cooper Hewitt “Quartz Lights” were used. This was a short mercury arc tube mounted in a porcelain reflector, having a distinct advantage over the longer and more fragile tubes.
“Back lighting” was an innovation in 1913. In was tremorously tried by progressive cameramen amid executive grumblings as an unnecessary waste of time. Time was important ; it was necessary to make two single reelers a week and the loss of time in “silly” lighting was not to be tolerated.
That does not refer to Selig. It seems for some reason he was not as other movie magnates. As proof Eddie Kull again recalls an incident that seems hard to believe. One Saturday at something less than fifteen minutes past one o’clock, Selig wandered out on his stage and saw our Eddie busv at work with the “company” trying to finish the picture.
Contrary to all movie rules and regulations. “Selig got sore as—plenty sore, because the company was working overtime.” In no uncertain terms he informed Eddie that people wanted their Saturday afternoons off and he wanted it understood that the afternoon started at exactly one o’clock. Eddie Kull was squelched each time he tried to explain that the fifteen minutes saved Selig $500, because the picture would be finished and the “company” would not need to be called back Monday morning.
Another company, in contrast, worked so long the carpenters would open the windows around midnight and start banging on whatever would make the most noise. The neighbors complained to the police.
The “Winfield-Kerner” was extensively used for a number of years. Roger Nauman, while superintendent of construction of the Louis B. Mayer Company in 1920, used the “bungalow” (spotlight) and “broads” (double side arcs) extensively. They were the vogue then. One of their heavy spotlights has been known to have fallen off a parallel and not break.
The Winfield-Kerner Company was organized in 1911 and started to make engravers lights. A year later they sold some arcs to a small independent company and shortly thereafter the Kalem Film Company bought a few. Otto K. Olesen, who is distinguished by being the one to light the famous Hollywood previews, started as a Winfield-Kerner man in 1912.
Tn 1919 Olesen formed a company which made electrical equipment for the motion pictures. In 1924, he bought up the Winfield-Kerner Company.
Many will recall the “Wohl”, an arc made in Germany which enjoyed a certain popularity because it was light in weight and very efficient. It was brought to this country in 1916.
The “Creco” arc was first made in 1919 by the Chamberlain Reyno’ds Electric Company. Peter Mole and Elmer Richardson were with Creco. A year later this company sold out to Bert Sylvester.
The first “Sun-Arc” was made by Frank Fair as a large 36 inch light in 1918. In a few years this form of arc was to be needed to light the large sets which were picture by picture increasing in size.
One of the earliest of the “Rotary” arcs was made by Clarence Ashcraft for use in filming the Goldwyn picture “Earthbound,” which was released August 15, 1920. For this picture he made a dozen arcs. Later he formed a partnership with Brown to form the Brown-Ashcraft Automatic Arc Company, which dissolved about five years ago.
The “Rotary” arc was an achievement. By rotating the positive carbon, it was possible to maintain an even crater and to directly face the condenser with the hot point with a higher illumination and a saving of about 20 percent in electrical voltage. The “Rotary” largely replaced all other forms. Because of the patents controlled by General Electric, all the “Rotaries” were licensed by them.
The first attempt on record to use Mazda lamps was a series of tests conducted by E. G. Ullman for Universal films. That was in September, 1913. The lamps of the 1000 watt daylight blue variety were anchored without reflectors to strips of wood. Five rows of these were suspended about ten feet overhead.
Mack Sennett in 1915-16 installed Mazda daylight blue lights and after making a series of tests photographed some pictures with them.
The Mazda was not successful, however, because they were breakable and their actinic quality was not suitable to the photographic emulsion of the Ortho negatives then used. After the advent of the panchromatic emulsion, it became desirable in the interests of better photography to use the Mazda. The arcs had been strong in their blue light content, and the early pan emulsion was more sensitive in the red end of the spectrum, which would result in a condition that would be difficult to balance. The adoption of the Mazda largely solved the problem.
With the introduction of the Eastman panchromaticemulsion, after a series of experiments conducted by Emery Huse and Ned Van Buren at the Eastman Kodak Works in the spring of 1927, the attention of the industry was directed to the necessity of bettering the light so that full advantage could be taken of the new photographic emulsion. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, in collaboration with Warner Brothers’ Studio, who furnished the cameras and studio space, the film manufacturers who furnished the panchromatic raw stock and General Electric who furnished lamps, conducted a series of tests with Mazda lamps. The cameramen, after completing the experiments, which were conducted in May and June of 1927, compared results.
Peter Mole and Elmer Richardson had formed a company in March of 1927 and had by the time these tests were completed some 5 kilowatt equipment which was used.
Their first lamp was a “broadside” with two T20 projection lamps, which proved unsatisfactory. They changed to the “pear-shaped” lamp. Early in the same year they made an 18-inch “sun spot.” This was followed by a “rifle lamp.”
With this Mole-Richardson equipment which was proven practical and a necessity with the panchromatic stock at that time, it was just a period of a few months until the entire industry changed over to the use of Mazda lighting.
The advent of sound made it an absolute necessity that Mazda lights be used, since then, there was an operating hum to the arc.
Mole-Richardson, being engineers and aware of the necessities of the studios with the change of conditions, which change seemed problematical at first, were in a desirable situation with a line of equipment.
Their lights could be seen in about every studio in 1928. They were adopted as the standard form of lights and came to be used almost exclusively by the entire industry.
Such is a part of the history of lighting. It is such a small portion of it. There is the high speed rotary made by Ide in 1920, there are the experiments of a large number who dreamed of the perfect light, there is the hurrying and scampering of the “juicers” who had to nurse and trim the early arcs to keep them going. There are those who said lights would never be used and there are those
who, perhaps far in advance of their time, used a light similar to the neon light. They were, according to Steve Hansen, the Swedish Biograph, who in 1920 equipped their studio with the MacFarlane Moore tubes.
Lighting and artistry in photography at its best today is such that it seems impossible that improvements could be made. Improvements will be made ; the stuff on the screen today is the stepping stone for that coming tomorrow. “To better conditions,” says Ruby Wallace, “we must have experience to guide us.”
To Lou Blix, Charles Munroe, Duke Daggy, Gary Sullivan, Lou Johnson, Ernie Simpson, Roger Nauman, Phil Coats, Wally Oettel, Frank Murphy, Leo Whistler, Bill Johnson and scores of others goes the credit of the lighting on the screen today. To them should be accorded THANKS! They are the “gaffers.”